Report: NFL team offered David Beckham a tryout as a kicker

Could newly-retired soccer star David Beckham have a future as an NFL kicker if he so chooses? According to the Daily Mirror, there are some in the league who believe that the 38-year-old Beckham, who retired from the "beautiful game" in May, could use his shot-shaping skills to good effect with the other football. Reportedly, Beckham was offered a tryout with one NFL team through a call from an unknown scout.

A source in Hollywood apparently told the Mirror this:

“A couple of scouts felt that David has the potential to become a kicker in the NFL team, and one actually put a call into him for a trial. It is no secret that David is one of the best in the business when it comes to accuracy and length in his passing. And he has stood on the greatest stages to perform magnificent feats with his feet.

“Major league kickers can send the ball 40 yards straight - David has shown for the last 15 years he can do that week in week out. It was obvious too that if Becks took up the offer any NFL franchise would be interested as his international appeal would generate billions in PR and commercial opportunities.”

Beckham rejected the offer, saying that it wasn't right for him, though the source believes Beckham might change his mind at some point.

While it would be interesting to see what Beckham could do with the American version of football, our friends over at Yahoo's "World of Sport" blog rightly point out that Beckham's chances of becoming one of the 32 best kickers in the land are pretty slim. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, it made far more sense for NFL teams to import foreign kickers like Jan Stenerud, Pete Gogolak, and Garo Yepremian, because American kickers didn't know the advantages of soccer-style booting. But in today's NFL, it's pretty clear that the kids have it aced. Just last season, we saw three different rookie kickers -- Washington's Kai Forbath, Minnesota's Blair Walsh, and St. Louis' Greg "The Leg" Zuerlein -- make terrific inroads in the pros. Forbath made his first 17 field goal tries, setting an NFL record. Walsh set his own league mark by making nine field goals of 50 yards or more, and Zuerlein made his first 15 attempts, which included five from over 50 yards. So, whatever they're feeding these kids, the current excellence of young, trained NFL kickers would most likely leave specialist oddities like Beckham out in the cold.

We'd tend to agree with "World of Sport" when they opine that "Many say Beckham is one in a million, but you are far more likely to see shoulder pads on a Posh Spice frock than you are on David."

But just for the heck of it, here's Beckham showing Reggie Bush the finer points of the free kick.